Some albums entertain, and then some albums reveal albums that open a window into the artist’s soul with startling honesty. Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jessi Robertson does precisely that with Dark Matter, her most vulnerable and ambitious work to date. The eight-song collection finds Robertson turning inward, peeling away years of creative and emotional disguise to uncover something beautifully raw and honest.
Originally from upstate New York, Robertson spent 15 transformative years in Brooklyn’s indie and experimental scenes before relocating to Nashville in 2018. That dual identity, city grit, fused with Southern storytelling, profoundly shapes Dark Matter. It’s a record where vulnerability meets defiance, where confession becomes catharsis, and where cosmic metaphors collide with deeply human truths.
Written and recorded solo, Dark Matter was born out of a season of revelation. Following a late diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Robertson began reflecting on how much of her life had been spent “masking” learning to perform normalcy rather than embracing authenticity. What emerged was a set of songs she once deemed “too weird for this world.” Revisiting them through the lens of self-understanding, she reassembled each track from the ground up, playing guitar, bass, and programming drums herself. The result is a profoundly personal journey of self-reclamation and creative liberation.
Dark Matter is both atmospheric and intimate. The songs hum with a sense of isolation and discovery, minimal yet magnetic. Robertson’s voice, often compared to Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, and Stevie Nicks, carries each lyric with striking intensity. Tracks like “The First Law Of Thermodynamics” and “Einstein-Rosen Bridge” weave the language of astrophysics into emotional poetry, transforming scientific metaphors into mirrors for identity and longing.
“I’ve created and discarded so many versions of myself,” Robertson says. “Dark Matter is the first step in relearning who I am underneath the masks I’ve unknowingly been wearing all my life.” That sentiment anchors the record, a declaration of truth in a world that often demands conformity.
Robertson’s creative evolution feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. From her early albums Small Town Girls and I Came From The War to this introspective new chapter, she continues to defy genre boundaries while sharpening her emotional edge.
In Dark Matter, Jessi Robertson transforms the concept of darkness into something luminous, proving that even the heaviest gravitational pull can lead to light, understanding, and self-acceptance.
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